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THE CAVERNS OF LURAY, 

PAGE COUNTY, VA., 
At Luray Station, Shenandoah Valley Railroad. 



j2@*-THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY RAILROAD is the ONLY RAIL 
ROUTE to the Caverns of Luray, and is the only line to the White Sulphur, 
the Warm, Hot, Healing, and other Mineral Springs of Virginia that admits of a 

STOP-OVER AT LURAY TO VISIT THE CAVERNS. 



(Editorial Correspondence Reading, Pa., Times and Dispatch, June 25th, 1881.) 

ONE OF THE GREATEST NATURAL CURIOSITIES IN THE WORLD 

SOME OF ITS ATTRACTIONS — HOW IT WAS DISCOVERED. 

AN eight-hours' ride from Reading through four of the most 
L beautiful valleys in the world, will take you to the re- 
cently-discovered,+)ut already widely-known, Caverns of Luray, 
in the State of Virginia. During the past few months thou- 
sands of visitors have already wended their way to see this 
great natural curiosity and geological wonder, and the univer- 
sal verdict, if it could be ascertained, would no doubt be : — 
" The half had not been told us." Upon the arrival there of a 
party from Reading and Lebanon, a few days ago, they imme- 
diately repaired to the cave, which they entered, accompanied 
b}' two guides of experience. For two hours, winding through 
miles of corridors, down by the sides of gaping chasms, then 
up, way up, among the domes of giant halls, the visitors kept 
close to the heels of the guides, who, whenever a particularly 
striking feature of the cave was reached, proceeded to enhance 
the value of the sight by means of an illumination with mag- 
nesium tape. 



Fi3 2_ 

2 /Pi "Zy 

Down in these earth-imprisoned realms of crystal, where the 
echoes of human foot had not been heard for ages, the tremb- 
ling fancy of the explorer must have almost shuddered in ap- 
prehension of meeting impalpable impressions of some kind at 
every turn of the body. The gloom of the fretted corridors — 
the yawning chasms telling of mystery and night and danger 
— the crystal monuments and alabaster colums, high and vast 
— the crypts, cloisters, and cathedral-like apartments of this 
mystic under-world — the glittering pendants and pearl-like 
formations on every hand — must have filled the eye of the dis- 
coverer, as it fills the eye of the visitor nowadays, with a feel- 
ing of wondering awe and speechless admiration. There are 
statues no bigger than a lady's finger — others like " the great 
giant Christopher." Here and there you will find quiet pools 
and peaceful lakes which the winds of heaven have never 
kissed — cascades which appear to the eye of fancy as if the 
waves had been leaping over each other's shoulders into a pool 
below and frozen as they fell. At one place, " a nest from 
which the laughing birds have taken wing ;" at another, a rid- 
ing-whip as perfect as if chiseled by the hand of Phidias, the 
sculptor of the gods ; at another, still statuettes chaste as Parian 
marble and graceful in outline as the poetry^of art itself could 
make it. As 

" In the elder days of Art, 

Builders wrought with greatest care 
Each minute and unseen part: 

For the gods see every where," 

so in these realms of the fanciful and picturesque there has 
been wrought out such forms of beauty and wonder by the 
architect of Time as to challenge the severely critical taste of 
the most aesthetic beholder. Like the excavations made in 
the baths of Titus and other Roman buildings, we have here 
forms light, fantastic, abounding in transformations from the 
animal to the vegetable, and mingling all the natural kingdoms 



in the most grotesque confusion. There are in these combin- 
ations of the picturesque with the statuesque, resemblances 
approaching at times the most advanced qualities of the sculp- 
tor's highest art. Indeed, it needs but a little play of the im- 
agination to people these dusky chambers with conservatories 
rich with crystallized leaves and blossoms, with canopies ot 
snow and ice, with crystal streamlets over which the listening 
nymphs hum their peaceful tunes. Marvelous in form and 
prodigal in number are these beauties scattered on every hand, 
as if the Frost King had breathed out the dearest songs of his 
life into the cavernous air and they had been transfixed there. 

The grandeur of these scenes — embodying millions of the 
most curious and beautiful forms which the fantastic brain of 
fairies could conceive, from tiny, trickling rills and flowers and 
pieces of drapery to carved and fluted columns, groups of stat- 
uary and arched domes of imposing dimensions — makes one 
feel as if he were in the enchanted abode of the subterranean 
gods — as if he were in the presence of a world of wonders 
whose beginning antedated by uncounted ages the history of 
the oldest race known to man. The most graphic pen must 
fail in the portrayal of the varied beauties of these wonderful 
caverns, and the picture to be fully appreciated must itself be 
brought face to face with the beholder. 

The roof of the cave is said to average from one hundred 
and fifty to two hundred feet in thickness and to consist of an 
immense bed of limestone rock, through which the water soaks 
from the surface, each drop, inpregnated with limestone, de- 
positing its mite, thus beginning the formation of stalactites 
and stalagmites, which it takes centuries to bring to respect- 
able proportions. Dr. Porter, of Lafayette College, himself a 
distinguished scientist, in a recent lecture, quotes an eminent 
brother scientist as saying, concerning the prostrate column 
weighing one hundred and seventy tons, which some convul- 
sion of nature must have thrown from its position, that four 
thousand years must have passed since its fall, and that seven 



millions of years were consumed in its formation. This calcu- 
lation is based upon the probable time it took to form the 
present sizes of the vertical stalactites which have formed on 
the fallen column. No wonder another distinguished son of 
science, Prof. Collins, of New York city (now in search of 
Polar stalactites), who visited the cave and looked at this col- 
umn, confessed all his preconceived ideas of time stranded. 
" I am not familiar," said he, " with the hypothesis upon which 
the calculations are based, but when the savants assert that it 
required seven millions of years to give this fallen column its 
present diameter, I feel like 'putting off my shoes' and stand- 
ing on this sloppy stone, for it certainly must be ' holy ground ' 
where I stand." The fallen column is about twenty feet in 
length by fourteen in diameter. As it is but a simple frag- 
ment of the ancient pillar before it fell, gauging its probable 
length by the pillars now standing, its original height, it is 
claimed, could not have been less than fifty feet, and its entire 
weight four hundred and twenty-five tons. 

Another of the wonders is the Cathedral, or Organ Room, 
with Organ. Here is another of those remarkable resem- 
blances to familiar objects with which these caverns abound. 
The stalactites, graduated in size like the pipes of an organ, 
produce, when struck with the knuckles or a piece of wood, 
real musical sounds, and so numerous are the pipes that the 
organ has all the capabilities of the xylophone, like which it 
must of course be played to properly develop its sweet- 
sounding notes. Then there is the Giants' Hall — magnifi- 
cent and awe-inspiring; the Spectre, a column of pure white 
rising out of a chasm five hundred feet long, seventy-five feet 
deep, and fifty feet wide ; the Saracen's Tent, whose softly- 
draped figures are guarded by grim sentinels ; the Lost Blan- 
ket, a wonderful formation ; Diana's Bath, Frozen Fountain, 
Cemetery, Oberon's Grotto, Titania's Veil, Cinderella leaving 
the Ball-room, and many other places of interest. 

One of the most remarkable features of this realm of dark- 
ness and dampness is the life that exists there. According to 



5 

Dr. Porter, the living creatures are bats and rats and spiders, 
the first two doubtless finding their way to light and food 
through crevices in the roof, and the spiders living on the pod- 
rules, which, in turn, subsist on the mold, the vegetable growth 
of the cave. The only human relic found in the cave is an 
encrusted human skeleton, lying in the bottom of a pit, which 
the celebrated Prof. Leidy, of Philadelphia, who made a suc- 
cessful examination, pronounced to be that of a full-grown 
man. 

Those who have made matters of this kind a study, unhesi- 
tatingly assert that nothing so vast, so varied, so magnificent, 
exists in any other cavern known to man. It is stated that 
its Unsupported spans are vaster than any of the Centennial 
buildings at Philadelphia ; that the roof of its highest room is 
one hundred feet, from which is suspended the most enormous 
stalactite in the world ; that it is by far more interesting and 
beautiful than the Mammoth Cave; that every form known to 
similar subterranean cavities is present there, with the advan- 
tage of new and peculiar forms known only to this cave, and 
that the cavern is older than the tertiary period. 

We do not wonder at the incredulity with which such ac- 
counts as these are received, but having seen what we have 
here feebly attempted to describe, we must challenge Barnum's 
claim to having "the greatest show on earth," for the Luray 
Caverns must hereafter be accorded all the honor and glory of 
such a comprehensive distinction. 

The cave was accidentally discovered in digging down 
through a sinkhole some two years ago by Mr. Campbell, a 
professional cave hunter, who was joined in the enterprise by a 
Mr. Stebbins. In order to obtain a title to the opening, these 
men paid liberally such as they employed to assist them, until 
they could purchase the property. Afterwards the former 
owners commenced litigation to regain their property, which 
is now in the hands of a company who paid the sum of $40,000 
for it, and who have already expended $30,000 in opening up 
the caverns and putting down board walks for a distance of 



6 

several miles. The saint property had been sold for a few 
hundred dollars only a few years before. Like all great caves, 
it is in a limestone region, and covers an extent in circular 
area of some five or six miles. The entrance to the cave is 
through the basement of a two-story frame house on the side 
of the mountain, where the visitors purchase tickets of admis- 
sion at a dollar a head. Passing through the entrance, which 
is twenty feet high by eighty feet wide, the party soon came 
in sight of the chief places of interest already described. 

The atmosphere of the cave is pure, the temperature avera- 
ging fifty-nine degrees, winter and summer, not being affected 
by changes from without. The entire passage through it can 
be made without getting in the least wet or muddy. 

T. C. Z. 




THE 

LURAY CAVE AND HOTEL CO. 



EXCELLENT Meals and Lunches are served at the 
Excursion House Restaurant of the Luray Cave 
and Hotel Company, which is close to the Shenandoah 
Valley Railroad Depot, at Luray Station. 

These Meals and Lunches are recommended by the Rail- 
road Company and are the only ones served near the 
station. 

Persons visiting or passing through Luray will find it 
greatly to their comfort and pleasure to patronize the 
Excursion House. 

ALL TRAINS STOP AT LURAY FOR MEALS, 



PLEASE NOTIFY TRAIN CONDUCTORS OF MEALS DESIRED, OR OF 
INTENTION TO VISIT THE CA FERNS. 



Passengers going North or South, stopping over for the 
next train, will have ample time to visit the CAVERNS 
OF LURAY, which are but one mile distant from the 
railroad station. 

Authorized conveyances will be found in waiting to con- 
vey passengers to and from the Caverns. Tickets are for 
sale at the Office. 

BY PURCHASINC TICKETS AT THE OFFICE: 

Fare from R. R. Station to the Caverns and return, . . 25 cents. 
Admission to the Caverns [including Lights and Guide), . $1.00. 



RATES AT EXCURSION HOUSE: 

Breakfast, 50 rents. Dinner, 75 cents. Supper, jo cents. 

Lunches, by the Card, 

Passengers are Requested to Report any Incivility on the 
Part of Employees. 



3.50 "Hall j Giants." 3.5° 

averns ° Luray. 

Stalagmites. Heligmites. Stalagtites. 

Entrance Hall. Fluted Columns. Garden of the Gods. 

Muddy Lake. Natural Bridge. 

Conkling'a Profile. Punch and Judy. 

Fish Market. Pluto's Chasm. Mirror Lake. 

Alabaster Scarfs. Crystal Spring. Grotto of Oheron. 
Bridal Chamber. Lost Blanket. Titania'a Veil. 

Breakfast Shawl. Snow Bank. Frozen Fountain. 

Musical Organ. Fallen Column. Angel's Wing. 

Breakfast Bacon. Human Skeleton. Ball Room. 

Blacksmith Shop. 
The above views are among the beautiful objects to be seen in tin; 
Magnificent Caverns of Luray — under the glare of the 

Electric Light. 

For the benefit of those who are unable to leave their business during 
the week we will run a 

SPECIAL TRAIN 

Sunday, Oct. 9th, '81, 

BALTO. & POTOMAC DEPOT, 

Leaving at 9 a. m.; returning, reach home at 10.30 p. m. 

FIVE HOU RS at the C AVERNS. 

Pare, Round Trip, Including Admission to 
Caves, $3.60. Children, 5 to 12, $2.30. 

Tickets for Sale at the Virginia Midland Ticket Office, 
Corner of Sixth and Pennsylvania Avenue. 

Lambie & Traylor, managers. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




